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AN AMERICAN'S ODE | 

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TO 



I DYNAMITE. 



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PUBLISHED BY 


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THE UNITED IRISHMAN, 


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12 Chambers Street, 


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New York, 


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Freedoms Factor, 
Hail! 



AN AMERICAN'S ODE 



TO 



DYNAMITE. 



9 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE UNITED IRISHMAN 

12 Chambers Street, 

New York. 

1885. 






Copyright, 1885, by 
Thb Author. 

A II rights reserved. 



I 



Freedom's Factor, 
Hail! 



I. 

From Mosaffer to Mahabad 
Go back, o'er Persia's page ; 

Observe the sway — forever sad — 
In each receding age 

Of dynasties, the fonts that sapped 
Of freedom, in the womb ! — 

9 

In ev'ry state — that epoch mapped — 
Man^s birth gift was a tomb ! 



6 FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! 

II. 

Dark Ignorance then forged the chains 

That Hnked men to the shrine 

Of kings — deep-branded, through long 
reigns, 

As slaves — by seal "divine"! 
And no pow'r, in the march of time, 

Arose could crowns defeat ; — 
// differed not their race or clime, 

Meiis thraldom was complete ! 

III. 

Th: criielest — the most deprave^ 

Of earth (by passions blind 
To ev'ry gentle thought hath saved 

A wreath, from poet's mind, 



FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL ! 
To crown one trait of later kino-s 

In common with their kind,) 
Debased 7nens so2ils, depressed all thing 

Till gleamed truth — icnconjined 



^s 

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IV. 

Then slaves, by reason's light, were led 

The Ptolemies to view 
More useful to the world — stark dead — 

Than when th'ey idly drew 
Their tribute from Egyptian yokes 

The pyramids to build, 
Or mid' piled corpses whipped bawd 
jokes — 

As battle-graves were filled. 



8 FREEDOM'S FACTOR. HAIL! 

V. 
The Hohenstauffen's star, 'twas dreamed, 

And Medici's, one day, 
Eclipsed a nobler sun, whence beamed — 

Its shade relieved — a ray 
More hopeful for the slaves that toiled, 

By which slaves might aspire 
Be)-ond the limits sceptres foiled, 

Whilst bidding truth expire. 

VI. 

That Sun a radiance bricrhter shed 

o 

Till thrones their glamor lost, 
And men, by nature's teaching, read 
The axiom ; No cost, 



FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL ! 9 

Or sacrifice, too great from earth 
Shall blot all trace of kings ! — 

And by that inspirations birth ' 

Were tuned 7?iens triie heart-strings ! 



VII. 

How differs Guelph or Ghibeline 
From Hohenzollern rule ? 

Of Hapsburg, or some other line, 
Men mused, as well the tool 

As Stewart or Plantagenet — 
Since differ but in name 

All dynasties have reigned as yet. — 

To us ALL KINGS THE SAME ! 



lo FREEDOM'S VAClUi^, KAIL ! 

VIII. 

The Montefeltros just as good — 

Grimaldls just as great — 
As any tyrants evci^ stood 

' Twixt God and mans estate 
Of earth, and its kin elements 

Of water, fire and air, 
And robbed from man God's impleme^its- 

To lighten thro7ies of care I 

IX. 

Colonna — stamped by history 

A coarse despotic brood — 
No Avorse than the crowned mystery 

Of Bourbon, when for food 



FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! ii 

Men's plundered stomachs woke the cry : 

Since land and sea are rife 
With plenty, why should kings suck 

DRY 

The sources of our life ! 

X. 

The ''noblest Roman of them all" — 

The hero himself crowned — 
Hath demonstrated, in his fall 

And rise, how fate e'er frowned 
At each essay by madden'd man 

To emulate the king — 
Sole in the Universal Plan — 

Who mouldeth ev'rything. 



12 FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL ! 

XI. 

Aye ! Not the regal Bonaparte 

(The nearest royal mold 
Born in our sphere since Caesar's heart 

Was quelled by patriots bold,) 
Could trespass long the bounds define 

Man's pow'r, and that apprise 
Man's heart : There rules, by Right 
Divine, 

But God — the Only Wise ! 

XII. 
Whoe'er the man o'er millions mounts — 

To heights where sceptres lure — 

Adventures with an instinct counts 

His destiny as sure 



FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! 13 

As that of ev'ry head assumes 

Deserve a diadem, 
Or for a moment vain presumes 

The tide of Pro^jress stem. 



XIII. 

To SUCH the Providence of God 

A Nemesis doth send ! — 
Our William Tells forget to plod 

When Heav'n pleads Gessler s end ! — 
Orsini casts the righteous bomb — ■ 

Petrovski ofuldes the shell — 
When equity so loses plomb 

Life hath no dread of hell ! 



14 FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL ! 

XIV. 

When cruel slavery wakes so loud 

An echo nature writhes, 

Brave old John Brown — from out the 
crowd 

A martyr — scorns the tithes 
That tyranny from justice claims, 

And blazons on the page 
Of history one of few names 



Surviving ev'ry age ! 



XV. 

John Brown will live beyond the day- 
On leo^end's mottled scroll — 

When long the record lost of Clay 
.And W^ebster, and the roll 



FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! 15 

That fadeth, even while I write, 

Is blotted from the mind ! — 
Brow7is pseicdonym will yet incite 

When none ca?i Ev arts find I 

XVI. 

Freemen, alike, the blades that wield 

Which aim at despot's front. 
Or rear, or mask — in couch or field — 

(Whether seems meet or wont. 
To paltry souls, or timid hearts). 

Are moved by God's own Breath — 
The Breath that, loathing crowned 
upstarts, 

Ne'er shrinks from striking Death ! 



i6 FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! 

XVII. 

The voice, suborned by tyrant's gold, 

May cry against the tide! 

The press, that Freedom's wail would 
smold. 

May rank the Princes' side ! 
For tyranny here means : King-spawn — 

Not by descent alone ; — 
It means: The lust of brain and brawn. 

Which apathy hath sown ! 

XVIII. 

Rich corporations slowly coil 
Their arms — like devil-shark — 

The length and breadth our fruitful soil, 
Exhausting (spark by spark) 



FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! 17 

The glorious faith, our fathers taught 

By maxim : Equal here 
All men ! — Forget you them who fought 

For Liberty, Life, Cheer ! 

XIX. 

When Paine discoursed of human 

RIGHTS — 

From freedom's alphabet 
Spelled nature's axioms — the Lights 

Of Pow'r by Justice set 
So plainly any child might read, 

His eye could not foresee 
The unborn causes time might breed 

To harm his legacy. 



i8 FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! 

XX. 

When Jefferson the truths declared 

On which the fabric based 
Of this RepubHc, who had dared 

To prophesy : Erased 
From ev'ry tablet of his text — 

In its first century — 
The ruHng features, and annexed 

A Code foals Penury ! 

XXL 
Ben Franklin never dreamed the shaft 

He taught to utiHze 
Incorporated by man's craft 



Might be — to reaHze 



FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! 19 

For smaller minds, of modern birth, 
The means to wreck, and soar 

Into ambition's realms of earth — 
Where crowns are kept in store. 



XXII. 

Could either of those great compeers 

Revisit earth, this hour, 
To hear the groans, and watch the tears 

By scorn of which the pow'r — 
In these United States — doth wane 

From People to the Few 
In gilded homes, he'd cry : Vain ! Vain — 

Our work ! Let's strike anew ! 



20 FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! 

XXIII. 

Alas I how would he strike to day ! — 

Whose grip doth hold men's Hves ? — 
By electricity, who siuay ? — 

Whose agent screws the gyves 
That fetter loom, and plane, and saw, 

The transport — land and tide ? — 
Whose hireliiigs frame and Judge the law, 

And justice over -ride I 

XXIV. 

This Nation, which should be foremost 

To champion the Good 
And Triie — declaring, whate'er cost, 

Its aim : Man's brotherhood 



FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL ! 21 

Of equal burdens, equal rights, 

In ev'ry clime of earth— 
Itself Is cancered by the blights 

That slowly sap its worth. 



XXV. 

America — misled, beguiled 

By long prosperity — 
Is falling prey to lusts defiled 

Rome, ere adversity 
(By sure degrees) her virtue mined, 

Her 'scutcheon smote and stained, 
Till power and pride so far declined 

They could not be regained. 



22 FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! 

XXVI. 

Throughout the world, the banner state 

Our Polity should be 
Of every people — bowed by fate — 

Aspiring to be free ! 
O'er Indian sands, and Irish turf, 

Nile's tributary tide, 
Turkoman 3^oke, and Russian serf, 

Our /Ecrls should abide ! 

o 

XXVII. 
Here, In our land, the primal creed 

That should be taught, and burned 
Into the heart, by giving meed 

To names no tombs have urned — 



FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL ! 23 

Or can — of heroes flashed their steel 

The blood of kings to spill, 
Is that which reads : No man should feel 

It crime a king to kill ! 

XXVIII. 

Earth's tyrants — both of birth and 
greed — 

Should be wiped out in blood ! 
Then swell the hue! The work God-speed — 

Tho' wide and red the flood 
Of corpses strewn in Freedom's wake ! 

For men have suffered long ; 
And it were well for manhood's sake. 

Death's tide were wide and strong \ 



24 FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL ! 

XXIX. 

Let Dynamite — God's factor grand 

In this quick Era^s pri^ne — 
Be cast where'er the cursed hand 

Of king-rule shows its slime ! — 
Be thrown amid their sacraments^ 

When British Lords partake ! — 
Be mined beneath all Parliaments 

That Freedom's hests forsake ! 

XXX. 

In palaces let it be fired^ 
Since with false life aglow ! 

'Neath castled manse have fuses wired. 
When wealth's vain pomp aflow ! 



FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! 25 

'Neath steeples, that mlspoint the heart, 

Let Freedoms agent bide / 
'Neath spires would mark our kind apart. 

Cool, watch the Regicide I 

XXXT. 

If needs, against cathedral domes, 

The angry message plant ! — 
'Neath ttirrets, where throng fashion's 
momes, 

Let fall the pressage gaunt ! — 
In tower, and in citadel, 

The howlinor summons hiirl I — ■ 
Let Bigotry share King-cra.ffs knell 

When Freedorns flags tuiftirl ! 



26 FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL ! 

XXXII. 

Broadcast, the savage means explode 

To GAIN A HUMANE END ! 

No matter whom the rod may goad, 
So loner as it shall tend 

o 

To break the manacles have stood — 

And will, to the last day — 
To mortify the just and good. 

Till torn by Truth away ! 

XXXIII. 

Then, tear ! And rend I aye, re7id with 
force- — 

Not favor, or with fear I — 

With mightiest weapon^ trumpet hoarse I 

With Dynamite, the Bier 



FREEDOM'S FACTOR, HAIL! 27 

Prepare — for Caste, and Class, and 
King ! — 
The Pow'rs have Freedom crushed 
Destroy ! — With fire, let vengeance 

SPRING 

Till earth's last king be hushed ! 

* * * 

Of blows aimed Caste, may no stroke 

FAIL ! 

Accurs't, Blood's Classes ! Hail, 
The hour that gave us Dynamite ! 
Let speed its Might ! — MAKE Right ! 

Washington s Birthday, 1885. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
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